CRKN terminates ACS licensing agreement

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) has terminated its license agreement with the American Chemical Society (ACS) for its web editions and legacy archives products. The termination followed unsuccessful discussions stemming from a new pricing model adopted by ACS for it non-US library and consortia customers. Under the new policy, costs to participant libraries are based solely on usage by averaging full-text downloads from the past three years. CRKN decided that the price increase was prohibitive — doubling or tripling the costs of ACS content — and represented a "huge financial risk" for libraries. The termination ends 12-years of large-scale, stable, multi-year agreements which expanded ACS journals into 66 Canadian universities. Canada and other nations are urging ACS to re-evaluate its new business and pricing model....